Word processing programs typically include a "spell capability" which identifies potentially misspelled words not found in a dictionary associated with the program. Many such programs also use an algorithm, which adds, deletes, substitutes, and transposes characters to generate a list of potential candidate expressions. For example, the commercially available SAMNA word processing package uses a "proof" function to detect the misspelled word "acress" and suggests the following possible candidate expressions in the order noted: "acres, cares, caress, across, caries, accrues, cashes, access." Candidates "acres", "caress", and "access" appear to be logical choices of intended words while "cares", "accrues", and "cashes" appear to be much less plausible choices. An object of my invention is to better identify the plausible candidates from those that e less plausible or implausible.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,758, issued Nov. 8, 1988, describes a process for comparing the potentially misspelled word with each candidate expression to produce a "disparity value, which numerically represents the structural differences between the two expressions." Established pity values are assigned, pursuant to formulas, for deletions, transpositions, etc. without regard to which particular character is modified.